Budget cuts have driven the state's agriculture department to propose slashing a program that promotes water conservation by irrigators and others.

Friday

Sep 4, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 4, 2009 at 6:00 PM

Eliminating the Water Rights Conservation Program is the latest move by the Kansas Department of Agriculture, an agency operating with 23 percent less staff because there is no money to pay the salaries.

Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Lisa Taylor said the department is saving $1.4 million by not filling 91 positions and laying off 16 others.

She noted the department's Division of Water Resources - the agency that runs the WRCP program, has seen the brunt of the cuts - losing 29 percent of its workforce.

At present, the department is operating with 18 percent less funding than in 2008, a fact that has hit other programs, including mandated ones.

"It's been a struggle," she said. "We've made cuts to meet our mission and core functions that are dictated by Kansas law - and it gets really challenging when you don't have the people."

However, unlike other agency programs, the Water Rights Conservation Program isn't mandated by state statute, making it an easier target as officials look for ways to balance the budget. The state's five groundwater management districts received noticed last month in an e-mail from the Division's chief engineer, David Barfield, that he planned to end the program by Dec. 31.

Barfield noted to GMD managers that by eliminating the program, he would save two days a week of work time devoted to the program by an employee.

At present, the only cost to the agency is staff time.

How the program works

Patterned after the federal Conservation Reserve Program for eroding cropland, the state initiated WRCP in 1992 to encourage conservation. Water users, typically those in over-appropriated areas, can suspend their water rights for a five- to 10-year period without the state declaring the rights abandoned.

The state can consider rights abandoned after five consecutive years of nonuse.

WRCP is unlike other state and federal programs that pay irrigators and others not to use their right. Instead, the program allows the user the choice of not pumping water while retaining ownership.

According to the state agriculture department, WRCP has been used by entities to conserve water, purchase water rights for future use and to maintain an active water right in areas where the source of supply has diminished.

Wayne Bossert, manager of Groundwater Management District No. 4, said there are more than 900 water rights enrolled in the program statewide, conserving about 260,000 acre feet of water.

Taylor said about 250 water rights are enrolled or renewed each year.

Conservation tool

Bossert said he is concerned what will happen if the chief engineer eliminates the program.

Some in the program may have to put their wells back into production - a concern for western Kansas where the Ogallala Aquifer continues to decline from over appropriation, he said.

At the district's Thursday board meeting, members gave their support to try to keep the program.

"We really want to urge the chief engineer to rethink the closing of this program," Bossert said. "The conservation of water has to be worth more than what it costs to run this program."

More than 300 rights are in the program in GMD No. 1 in west-central Kansas - an area of the state where the groundwater table is over--exhausted by irrigation.

"I think it is an excellent tool for many areas of the state," said David Brenn, the district's executive director. "It keeps a lot of water from being used."

Brenn said some of those enrolled in the program have wells in areas where the water table has declined over the years.

However, he said, "even the marginal wells that are pumping maybe 100 gallons a minute, you put enough of those together, it is another draw on the aquifer.

"We look at this as a conservation program that has been pretty effective," Brenn said.

Bossert said one thing he and state officials will never know is how much water irrigators and other users would have pumped if the program wasn't in place, or if those wells would have been abandoned.

Cities and WRCP

Tim Maier, assistant general manager of McPherson's board of public utilities, said the city has four irrigation water rights in the program. The city purchased the rights in an area closed to further appropriations in an effort to conserve water and save it for the future.

Maier said while McPherson sold its irrigation equipment long ago, the city might have to purchase a system to maintain the water right.

Hutchinson is in the same situation, said Don Koci, an environmental geologist with the city.

The city obtained two active water rights from the former Carey Salt facility as part of the Fourth and Carey groundwater remediation project. The city placed them in WRCP to ensure that large volumes of water would not be pumped in the area, which would negatively affect groundwater clean operations.

Continued pumping would have influenced the groundwater flow direction and the city's ability to capture contamination plumes with its remediation wells.

The rights also provide offsets for other groundwater remediation operations. Since the area is over-appropriated, the city agrees not to pump water from the rights so that contaminated water can be pumped by two other groundwater cleanup operations.

Koci said the city plans to use the rights for the remainder of the operation - about 30 years. Upon completion of the project, use of the rights might be essential in the city's future growth.

"If the city is required to remove the water rights from WRCP, it will need to actively use water beneficially under the rights," he said. "This will require the extensive cost of completing withdrawal wells and installing pumping equipment and diversion piping."

However, Koci said, "If the water is not actively used, the city risks losing the rights."

Solving the issue

During the past legislative session, state agriculture officials testified in favor of a proposal that would have made the Water Rights Conservation Program fee-based, charging roughly $100 a year for those in the program, Taylor said.

The proposal never made it out of committee. Opponents included the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock Commission, according to minutes of the meeting.

She said the department also asked for a modest fee increase for the state's dairy inspection program, also not approved. The agency laid off one employee in that program.

Chief Engineer Barfield plans to meet with GMD managers in the next few weeks to discuss the program, Taylor said. The proposal will go to public hearing before it's finalized.

Barfield also plans to work with cities like McPherson and other water rights holders to see if there is an alternative to the WRCP program, she said.

Bossert said he knows the department is in a tough situation, but noted there might be another solution to save the program.

One might be to have local GMDs take over the program, he said.

"I see both sides of it," he said. "But I'm leaning toward this not being the best decision. It's cheap conservation, the cheapest conservation Kansas has ever done."

The Equus Beds will discuss the Water Rights Conservation Program at next week's board meeting.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 313 Spruce St., Halstead.

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